The present invention relates to textile winders and more particularly to a method and means for guiding yarm to and from a splicer in a textile winder.
Textile winders are used to wind yarn from relatively small supply bobbins, that have been wound at spinning machines, onto large packages more suitable for use in subsequent processing of the yarn into textile products, and in doing so the winders are equipped to sense irregularities in the yarn and force yarn breaks to eliminate the irregularities, with the yarn ends then being spliced and winding reserved.
In performing the splicing, suction tubes pick up the yarn ends from the supply bobbin and winding package and pull them to a splicer that is out of the normal winding path of the yarn. In the splicer the ends are trimmed and spliced together by a blast of air or other means. Winding is then resumed with the spliced yarn released from the splicer and allowed to return to the normal winding path under winding tension. When the yarn ends are pulled to the splicer by the suction tubes and are positioned for splicing by the elements of the splicer, the path of the spliced yarn from the supply bobbin through the splicer to the winding package is considerably longer than the normal winding path, with the result that there is initial slack in the spliced yarn when it is released from the splicer upon resumption of winding, which slack can result in imperfect winding, kinking of the yarn and breaking of the yarn to require re-splicing, particularly when winding high twist synthetic yarns.
Furthermore, because the yarn must be fed through several components in traveling from the supply bobbin to the winding package, it is difficult to manipulate the yarn ends into proper position in these components as well as into the splicer. This is particularly significant with the yarn end from the winding package as the splicer is normally located with such components as the yarn measuring and breaking unit, lubricating unit, yarn guide and winding drum between the splicer and the winding package.
By the present invention, reliable and positive control is provided for manipulating yarn ends to a splicer and for releasing spliced yarn to the winding path under tension without deleterious slack.